# 1527, Oil on board, 19.5 x 23 inches

Securing a Secular Past through Significant Aesthetics: Yousuf Ali

Life colours the living and death makes those colours relevant and that is what makes every single human being on the face of the earth important. Each human being, living, lived, dead and gone, has been creative in his/her own ways. If the world could be considered to be a canvas then the life of the individual itself is the painting; it varies in medium, sometimes it is joy and at other times it is sorrow. Rare are those beings that could paint a painting of stillness and yet motivate the onlooker with the contained movements in it. Knowing the life of people moves us into action, it helps us take moral stances and also it makes us think about our own creativity, our lives. Some people with their lives make others' lives beautiful and peaceful. They are the creators of rhythms of life and seen from a different perspective, the tranquillity and bliss of life.Watching a painting (or the life of another person so intently) with compassion and love inspires us to understand the person behind it and through his life and creativity, we understand our own lives and its creative facets. Shaikh Yousuf Ali, the Mumbai based painter who passed away at the age of fifty seven, somewhat a prime time of achievement for a professional artist, in 1997, was one such artist who imparted joy and tranquillity at the same time to many other lives that cared to look at his works, collected them and above all, struck a friendship with him. People from different walks of life came into his life, saw his works, wondered at the kind of energy that he exuded in those paintings which he often did when thewhole world slept, and many of them became his avid collectors and yet another majority became his friends. Knowing this artist, who is comparatively less praised and contextualized in the contemporary art scene of India, is pertinent not only to understand the beauty of our own lives but also to see the contemporary art activities in perspective.

Had he been alive, his friends would have been getting ready to celebrate his platinum jubilee this year (2014). When Aura Art Development Pvt Ltd, an organization that has devoted itself not only to the promotion of young and established artists in India, but also takes a special interest in those talented artists who, for various reasons did not find an adequate space in the history of Indian modern art, brings out this monograph on Yousuf Ali, it does celebrate his platinum jubilee; for the man at the helm of Aura Art, Mr Daljit Singh Sethi, his dearest friend, Yousuf Ali is still alive. "Yousuf cannot die because his works live. A man lives through his progenies. Yousuf Ali has brought two beautiful children to this world. While they keep the legacy of the man alive, it is his works that lives on whether they are heralded in our history or not. Yousuf lives on because his works cannot be shoved into the vaults of oblivion. I am convinced they are innately good and have tremendous aesthetic relevance today, Yousuf's physical absence is of little consequence. Man dies but his works live on.We at the Aura Art realize it is of utmost importance to bring out the works of Yousuf Ali once again beforethe public and make a worthy reassessment of the artist so that the future generations may understand his genius," says Daljit Singh Sethi.

# 1526, Oil on board, 19.5 x 23 inches, 1968

It is an irony that when Yousuf Ali was alive, though he was very reticent like VS Gaitonde who shunned public appearances, he was very popular not only amongst the friends but also amongst the art fraternity in Mumbai. Even the well known legendary artist late MF Husain is said to have appreciated the works of Yousuf Ali and had even asked the artist to exchange one of his works for two of his own works. It cannot be an exaggeration as Husain himself knew that there was one artist in Mumbai named Yousuf Ali who was working in a style that was faintly reflective of his own style. But when Husain saw the originals of Yousuf Ali, he knew for sure that here was an artist who had found his own original language using a dexterous mixture of light colours and strong graphic lines. There could have been more camaraderie between these two artists as they came from the same religious background and interestingly took an interest in the larger religious sentiments of the Indian subcontinent even while sticking to the beauty of the calligraphic renderings made essential by many Islamic artists of yesteryears. But they did not become thick friends because both of them believed strongly that it was not their belonging to the same religious community that had made them important artists but their personal talents. They struck different paths but Husain was already an established figure in the Indian art scene. There may have been unjust accusations by the press and art lovers saying that Yousuf Ali was inspired by Husain. But the two artists, despite their age difference, kept at independent trails and did not get into controversies regarding style or thematic selections. Such an egalitarian approach is a rare thing in today's world which has been increasingly divided into religious, economic and political compartments. Both Husain and Yousuf believed in Islam but they used the true tenets of Islam as a vehicle to their secular existence. It strengthened their belief in humanity and for them their art was all about celebrating humanity.

# 1524, Oil on canvas, 30.5 x 13.5 inches

Born in 1939, in Goa, Yousuf Ali came to study art at the illustrious Sir JJ School of Art after his secondary school education and since then Bombay became his home. The post independent decade was quite active in Bombay and everyone had the expectation of making it big in life. Artists in the 1960s, had already found their converging and diverging paths with the Progressive Art Movement which came around under the leadership of Francis Newton Souza in 1947. This short lived movement was a strong influence on many of the artists of that time and the ripples of it were strongly felt at the JJ School of Art mainly because Souza was a drop out from the same school. While JJ School of Art insisted on academic realism as the pedagogic style to shape the future artists of India, Souza and his ilk found it very orthodox therefore limiting the artists. They chose to work in a violent expressionist style and people immediately lapped it up, though there were controversies regarding thematic selection of the artists who belonged to the group. Stark nudity, religious criticism amounting to blasphemy and also the plight of the common man embellished their canvases while the official academy was still asking painters to do conventional portraits and beautiful paintings based on academic realistic skills. For the young artists, this movement was something inspirational for the time being but the sudden disbanding of the Progressive movement in Bombay sent several of them into confusion. Many of the artists who came after the Progressive Movement approached the genre of painting from the point where the Progressives had left off. Yousuf Ali, after having his training at the JJ School of Art chose to follow the creative experiments that stalwarts like Souza and Husain had started.

J.J.School of Art, despite its insistence on academic realism and strict emphasis on graphic qualities of a work of art, was not operating from a vacuum. It has its own kind of exposure to the western modern art and like the students in many of the established art colleges of that time, Yousuf Ali also took the route of Impressionism and Post Impressionism in his formative years both as a student and a young independent professional artist. If one looks at the works done during the late 1950s and early 1960s, it is easy to discern that Yousuf Ali had gone through the rigour of the western art education. There is a saying that most of the artists, who fall for the charm of the late 19th century French painters, often follow the works of Vincent Van Gogh. There are two reasons for this: those artists who follow Vincent Van Gogh, understand this artist as a divinely mad artist who struggled a lot to survive as an artist. The second reason is that his impasto style was more direct and violent which could be the fancy of any young artist. While the former legitimized the young artists' self image as struggling artists the latter endorsed their claim to be modern and international at the same time. Together they legitimized the young artists' existential issues that young artists are bound to go through. But Yousuf Ali was not a fan of Van Gogh. Instead, he preferred the works of Cezanne and Monet who played more with the luminosity of colours and tried to understand the scientific nature of light on objects than with the existential brush strokes. Yousuf Ali, in his formative years followed these masters quite carefully and came out with a series of paintings that reflected the generic themes of the masters; landscapes, country sides, docks and so on. Yousuf Ali captured the play of light on these places and painted directly from life. Even when he was living in the city of Bombay there was some kind of nostalgia about his village that he had left behind. Nostalgia, tinged with the idea of nation's progressive future (not strictly nationalism) made him dream in a reverse manner. He started thinking like Mahatma Gandhi who thought that it was in the villages that the soul of India resided. Apparently we do not see any painting of urban scapes in Yousuf's oeuvre during this period. He painted villages and interestingly, perhaps finding it so alluring that he used a lot of impasto on these canvases.

# 429, Water colour on paper, 13 x 10 inches

Even during this time, the future artist's nature was in the making or rather we could say that Yousuf Ali, the future artist had already been implanted inthe young Yousuf Ali. The young Yousuf seems to be reticent as he would become later and in his self portrait with a palette, one can see how Yousuf portrays himself as an outsider, who does not want to mingle. The gaze of the artist or rather the posture itself is away from the viewer. He does not look at the world; he is slightly away from the world. He seems to be immersed in the act of painting. He, like the pre-Renaissance artists of the West, adds a halo for himself which appears as an external light source within the painting. Though the nape of the artist is lit up by a semi yellow light it does not illuminate his face, and this gives a brooding quality to the picture. The general mood of the picture is of ruminating; of deep thought. But the artist is so involved in his work that he has even forgotten the world. In an interesting way, the artist portrays himself like a saint, a martyr for the cause of art. Or he is a martyr for the cause of aesthetics itself. He is a social outsider but he is an insider to the esoteric world of art, which is like a cave illuminated by an ethereal glow. What is important here is the attachment of the artist's body with the palette that he holds. It looks like an inseparable extension of his own body. Here Yousuf Ali makes his own subtle proclamation about his existence as an artist. He cannot exist without art, a young man who intensely looks at (an invisible) canvas, seems to say.

# 601, Oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, Late 1970s

Freed from the academy and thrown literally into the world of chaos and insecurity, Yousuf Ali decided to eke out a decent living by doing what he is good at; making art. But soon he realized that to become a full time artist, especially when there were no patrons to back the artist up, he needed patronage from some quarters. There was no proper gallery system in Bombay in the 1960s. The words of the expatriate critics mattered a lot and the cultural elite were swinging according to commercial interests in art. Amidst these realities, Yousuf ( once again discarding the Van Gogh syndrome ) decided to join the advertisement industry as a graphic artist A young man trained in painting found it really difficult to work within the stringent and limiting conditions of the advertising world. But Yousuf was a fast learner. Sooner than later, Yousuf mastered all the graphic skills and climbed the ranks in the agency he worked for, first as a creative artist, then as a creative head. One of his contemporaries and noted advertising personality, Satish Pillai, remembers that as a young artist Yousuf initially found himself like a fish out of water in his new role as a graphic artist. But once he learnt the techniques, he was the master of it all. Pillai fondly remembers how Yousuf's black and white advertisements in the newspapers that were still printed in black and white, stood distinct amongst a host of other advertisements and pictures. The graphic quality was unmistakable and even in the din of advertisements Yousuf could impart his own identity, a rare feat for a graphic artist of that time in India.

The job in advertisement agencies was at once paying and giving satisfaction to Yousuf. Even as an artist his thirst for creating something new was satiated as the agency heads were ready to take in his image suggestions and styles. However, another part of his self was aching. He wanted to do his paintings and become a full time professional artist. By that time he had a family and it was pertinent for him to continue with a well paid job. His daughter remembers that he was a night-time artist and many of his friends vouch for that. He liked solitude and more than that he liked music. Music listened in solitude was heaven for him and hence he preferred to work at night when the city went under the sheets of familiarity and darkness. Yousuf, in the attic studio of his house, spent many a lonely night in order to create his important paintings. Though he liked to paint during nights to enjoy music and solitude, practically there was another reason for him to do his paintings at nights. During the daytime, he spent his working hours at the agency office, creating a different set of images for the ideas that the agency's creative team deliberated upon. And it was only at night that he could sit with his own ideas and transfer them to several different visual formats of his liking. Solitude helped him immensely to do it and music was always a solace and slowly he realized that he was painting music, musicians and their movements and that too in a way that resembled the legendary artist, Marcel Duchamp's 'Nude Descending the Staircase'. This affinity for a modern language was not a conscious one. For him it was a sort of arrival and a finding at once and he thrived on it. Music and everything related to music became his major thematic anchor.

# 428, Water colour on paper, 13.5 x 10.5 inches

Before we go into a detailed discussion on the themes that Yousuf Ali had taken as his favourites, it is pertinent to discuss the style that he developed in due course, which later became a definitive style of the artist. Yousuf Ali, as an art student, as aforementioned, was charmed by the impressionist and post-impressionist styles and at the same time he was not averse to theother internationally acclaimed art movements which were becoming a rage all over the art world. First and foremost, like many of the artists in India at that time, he too had taken interest in Cubism as a revolutionary art style. Cubism, established by Picasso and Georges Braque, was an attempt to see the third dimension of an object without resorting to eye fooling illusionism as seen in the academic art styles. It was more of a scientific approach and it pitched its argument on the logic of viewing. It defied the conventional logic of viewing and in its place brought in a revolutionary logic of seeing the third dimension from the frontal plane of the two dimensional surface itself. Picasso experimented by deconstructing the unified object view into various components and stitched them together to produce a mass that gave emphasis on volume and the third dimension. As it was scientific it resorted to two ways of which one was synthetic and the other was analytical. Like many of the artists who were enamoured by the possibilities that the cubist art language offered, Yousuf Ali too liked the synthetic nature of cubism. However, he was not averse to the analytical side of it also. But as an Indian artist who believed in the unity of space and time rather than scientific clinical approach to things that destabilized the time-unity at times, he preferred to incorporate the analytical within the synthetic. This explains why he cut his images in splinters yet did not destroy the logical unity of the image in space. In this respect, he differs considerably from MF Husain who had often defied the logic of space and time and made his image almost abstract.

Splintering the pictorial image is one of the visual techniques that Yousuf Ali started experimenting with immediately after he got out of college. As he steered alone through the ocean of his creativity, he realized that the softness of impressionism and post impressionism did not allow him to treat the realities that he used to see around him. He wanted a different style and once he recognized the fact that it should be aligned to an art historical lineage not only of his own country but also of the world itself, and at the same time he should create something of his own even while adhering to this lineage, he went on experimenting with images, surfaces and colours. A deeper look would reveal that in the initial days, Yousuf was more inclined to portray the life around him and as the time passed by he became more focussed on his favourite subject; music and musicians. In the earlier paintings one could see even the musicians portrayed in dark colours. Deep and light browns dominated the pictorial plane. And the sombre mood that pervades the paintings became a hallmark of the Yousuf of early years. However, all this while we could see him splintering up the images as if they were seen reflected on a vertically broken glass surface and then joiningthem piece by piece. But he does it with elan and ease which only a proficient artist like Yousuf could handle. Nowhere can we see him labouring with the splintered images and struggling to join them in a logical fashion. Whether it is the image of Ganesh or those of dancers, it is sure that Yousuf got them right even in the splintered style.

# 622, Oil on canvas, 32 x 54 inches, Late 1980s

During the formative years and the years that helped him to consolidate as an artist, Yousuf preferred to use dark colours. This was a choice motivated by the mental state of the artist in those years. While working in the advertising agency as a chief graphic designer and creative artist, Yousuf knew for sure that this was not all about his life. It did bring bread and butter to his home but the artist in him was not satisfied. The introvert nature of the artist added a lot to the gloominess to the colour choices. He was wishing to paint all the time and be a full time professional artist. At times he thought he was a misfit in the advertising world. What gave him satisfaction was the creative efforts that he employed in making the advertisements for various companies and also the approach of the agency heads of that time. They gave him full freedom as an artist. However, it was not what Yousuf was asking for. He was pining for canvases and colours. What lightened up his mood was his love for music. Back home after a day's work at the office, he found solace in his attic studio in Hindustani music and colours. The mood was sombre and he chose to paint with sombre colours. The images that came out of his brush and palette were mostly of the musicians totally involved in their singing. Yousuf found that as an artist he needed to immerse himself into the world of art and spend his time with canvases and colours. But the reality was absolutely different and he had to suppress some of his creative urges occasionally. This had filled him with a sort of melancholy, which got reflected in most of the paintings of that time.As years pass by, we could see how Yousuf's palette lightens up as he finds new mediums. Water colour and ink were two favourite mediums that he found. He had developed his proficiency in rendering lines and colours so much that he could control the flow of the colours at his will. Even while using different mediums he does not leave his hallmark style of splintering cubism behind. He keeps improvising the figures and in the process imparting them with a sort of lightness and joviality. This could be seen in the later works where he paints mostly dancers, Kathakali figures and so on. Living in Bombay, Yousuf could not have escaped the Ganesh festival. Also as a diligent reader of religious texts, Yousuf never shunned the texts of other religions including Hinduism. He was very much fond of the figure ofGanesha, the elephant god. Ganesha festival is one of the pivotal festivals in Maharashtra; in that sense, Yousuf was just trying to catch the ambience of this festival in his works. But his Ganesha paintings have something more than just documenting the festival in his own hallmark style. He knew that Ganesha was the dispeller of all obstructions in life. Having a Ganesha figure at home seems to be still a passion in most of the Hindu households in India. This could be interpreted as something related to the market feasibility of his works. But even when Yousuf was not showing his works in public through properly conducted shows in reputed galleries, he was painting the figures of Ganesha. What drew him to this figure was the ambiguity of the god's body shape. Most of the Indian artists paint Ganesha figure because they believe that anything could be converted into a Ganesha figure. The figure of this deity is so potent and all encompassing that even the geometrical forms could be converted into a Ganesha figure which otherwise has more flowing contours than squares and triangles. In that sense, for Yousuf, Ganesha is the embodiment of all forms; it is not just a god figure, but an artistic theme that helps the artist to create something really challenging. Here the dispeller of all hindrances becomes an aesthetic hindrance and overcoming it through forms was the best way to deriveartistic pleasure, at least in Yousuf's case.

# 628, Oil on canvas, 30 x 42 inches, 1992

In his works Yousuf perceived Ganesha figure as an abstract form like the Islamic calligraphy. The figure could be modified, rearticulated and rerendered without losing the essential nature and meaning of it. In his Allah series, this is exactly what Yousuf does; he creates a series of calligraphy paintings that praise the names of the god almighty, Allah. Inspired by the traditional calligraphy, which is so common in Islamic traditions and also by the Persian calligraphy, Yousuf looked for different typographical experiments in all cultures. While working in advertising agencies, as a creative artist, it was imperative for him to create new letter types, sometimes deriving from the existing vast array of types and at other times, making hybrid versions of it. But the real pleasure came from creating something really original. Though a special type of lettering is not known till date in the name of Yousuf, many people knew him closely as an advertising professional, vouch that he was an expert in bringing up interesting letter types. Mr Daljit Singh Sethi too encouraged Yousuf to create a rare series depicting different names of Allah, combining his calligraphy skills and artistic sensibilities. Yousuf understood that in his religion God was not supposed to be presented in human form. Hence, it was a negotiation between the representation of god and homo-centric figurative art. He could have chosen the latter inviting controversies. But he stuck to the former and created an exquisite set of calligraphic paintings titled 'Allah series'. The series take a place of pride in the Aura Art collection. These paintings are not really calligraphic in their behaviour. They are abstract and at the same time holistically they give a special visual effect to the onlooker. One could spend a long time before these paintings without being too constrained by religious thoughts. Yousuf always believed in this pure contemplation of/on aesthetics.

# 448, Pencil & water colour on paper, 11 x 13 inches

Composition wise, Yousuf's images are in perfect harmony and balance with each other within each painting. He does not clearly demarcate the spaces as foreground, middle ground and background. Instead, he gives a sort of panoramic view to most of his works, in which he distributes the images depending on the focus and importance given to each image. If it is a painting of musicians, he chooses which one of the musicians should be brought into sharp focus and which one has to be out of it. This effect he achieves primarily through the positioning of the images within the pictorial plane. The iconicity of the central image is always subdued with an added image and if it is a painting of musicians, he makes use of one of the musical instruments to do the service of this subduing. As he uses a panoramic vision in most of his paintings, each figure is given due importance and the splintered division of the space makes them appear in different spaces of importance while in actuality all of them remain in the foreground itself. The middle ground is almost nullified in most of the works of Yousuf as he brings the background so close to the foreground and makes both planes equallyimportant. But this does not mean that he makes cardboard images which do not have any feel of volume. The volume and weight is conveyed through the synthesis of the splintered sections while resisting all the impulse to create illusionism.

His humanism and his humanitarian love were not bookish. For creating a harmonious world, Yousuf culled observations and experiences from various sources. As a keen observer of social life around him, most of these aesthetical notations came from the surroundings itself. Though he could adapt himself to literally any thematic requirement, his favourite themes were - music, dance, horses, village folk, religious icons and man woman relationship. As I mentioned before, he used both analytical and synthetic cubist styles to vivify these inspirations in aesthetical forms. It could be like apparitions of beautiful women juxtaposed with a still life. And such works of Yousuf stand close to the sublime aesthetics created by JehangirSabawala, another senior contemporary of his times. The serene and translucent feel of Sabawala's paintings finds resonances in Yousuf's works too. Similarly, Yousuf's dexterity in applying his humanitarian vision in all forms that he employs in creating his works could be seen in adopting even the religious topics. He brings in a special sort of symbolism, which shows his deeper understanding of religious texts and religious teachings. But he never illustrates these teachings on the contrary he extracts certain universally familiar symbols from this host of philosophical views and highlights them in his paintings. When he details a weapon, he brings in the whole tradition of decorative court art into it; at the same time he does not shy away from creating a blessing hand in an absolutely expressionistic and quasi-cubist style.

# 444, Oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

Exaggerated gestures are another interesting aspect in the paintings of Yousuf. He underlines each gesture of the human or divine characters in his paintings. For example, even a cursory look at the musicians painted by Yousuf would reveal that their gestures are adequately exaggerated without affecting the harmony and balance of the painting as a whole. Sometimes, asinger moves forward while singing or cranes his neck while attempting a higher pitch and these forward movements and the elongation of the body parts do not look odd at all. Most often, Yousuf gives his total attention to the hands of the protagonists. Hands for the artists are of greater importance. The fingers are really elongated and a closer look reveals that they are bit bigger and brighter than the rest of the limbs. These elongated fingers or an open palm appear as a sort of blessing or soothing in his paintings. Even in the Ganesha paintings one can see this elongation and exaggeration of an open palm and fingers. The fingers hold certain mudras, depending on the context of the image. In the Kathakali paintings, done both in watercolourand ink, Yousuf plays out his fantasy with hands and fingers to his heart's content. Interestingly, even in the exaggerated posture, these gestures are canonically right though the artist has not tried to do an exact replication of the source image. Kathakali dancers give him another scope for using his splintered style to a natural effect. The costumes of Kathakali are so elaborate and intricate that they give ample scope for the artist to make vertical splintering of the same. Yousuf has also studied the light effects on Kathakali dancers minutely.

A doting father, a loving husband, a recluse and a good natured friend, Yousuf could play out all his roles well when he was back from his office. He took his children for long walks, cooked for them at times, received some close friends and entertained them with his silence. Once he was in his studio, he used to forget the rest of the world. His daughter remembers the nights that she went upstairs to her father's studio and slept there listening to his stories. He was so involved in his paintings that his stories went from one episode to another like the stories of Arabian Nights till he realized that his daughter had already slept. Yousuf liked to paint at night and did a job during the day, and yet what he wanted was not happening. One of his friends who happened to see his paintings suggested that they could put up a show in a gallery space at the famous Taj Hotel in Bombay. It was sometime in the early 1980s. Waiting for such an opportunity, he instantly agreed to work for the show. As it was his first show, Yousuf did not know how to go about it. He did all the carpentry work himself and made moderate frames for his works. The opening of the show was a grand success. He could sell most of his work on the same evening. Those works which were not sold, he gifted to his close friends. Seeing a business opportunity in this success of Yousuf, his friend turned a bit ambitious and started exhorting the artist to have more shows, which Yousuf was not ready to comply. What he wanted to do was to create his paintings. But the financial freedom that the sales gave him freed him from the daily grind of the job and finally he could say goodbye to his work place. Also critical at this juncture came support - both financial and otherwise - from close Collector friends like Mr Daljit Singh Sethi and Mr Prem Raney. Though he bade goodbye to the job he did not forget the friends he made there.

# 621, Oil on canvas, 36 x 48 inches

Satish Pillai, one of his close friends remembers those days vividly. Yousuf was happy and he wanted to do more works. He did not want to succumb to any pressures of the market. Interestingly success was not ready to leave him though it came a bit late. Parting with his friend, Yousuf decided to go alone in his exhibitions. He mounted his exhibitions regularly at the Taj Hotel gallery and they were all instant successes. In the meanwhile, as anirony in history or as it usually happens in history, there started appearing cloned works of Yousuf Ali in the market. The style was so captivating that some of the artists started copying Yousuf's style thinking that the style would get them gold. His friends were scandalized but the man remained silent. One day, Yousuf, goaded by a friend went to see one of his copycat's works. He saw them and nodded in appreciation. His response was so confusing, remembers Satish Pillai. He wanted to put the issue at rest and let the other artist go with his pursuit of making money. "After all he also wants to live," was his response to the whole event. The copycats faded away in due course of time but Yousuf stayed back on his track reaping success after success with his exhibitions. He was commissioned for working large scale interior paintings which he did efficiently. After visiting one such wealthy home where Yousuf's work was placed at the prime spot of the drawing room, MF Husain said to the owner that the work should have a permanent space there and whatever may be the temptation, it should not be removed.

Yousuf was not so particular about getting his works written about. He kepta distance with the critics of the time. It was not that he did not believe in art appreciation and criticism but rather he believed that his works spoke for themselves. He did not have too many things to tell the art critics. Though that was the case, reviews often appeared in the newspapers appreciating his works. Even the foreign erudite art collectors gave him notes of appreciation as a benevolent gesture. They all thought that Yousuf should not be confined to Bombay or other Indian cities. They argued that Yousuf had talent that could stand up to international modernism. But he was all the more reluctant to move from Bombay. Once he got an opportunity to have a retrospective like show in Germany. He was supposed to live in Germany and work for a few months. Yousuf was not so keen to bite the bait. His response was simple; how could I, living in a foreign country, follow my lonely pursuit of art in lonely nights?

# 1525, Oil on canvas, 23.5 x 29.5 inches

A man of few words, Yousuf found it difficult to give titles to his works. He always sought the help of his close friends who were good with language. Satish Pillai was a close confidante of Yousuf and often it fell on Pillai to do the graces. He would invite Pillai to his studio and show the works one by one and say a few words about when, how and why he did it. Pillai would use all his imaginative faculties to conjure up titles for those works. When he did not have enough time to spend with the artist, Pillai took mental notes and after reaching home dictated the titles over phone. Pillai says that most of the titles stuck in that way and today those paintings are known after the titles given by friends like Pillai. Yousuf was not very fussy about all these things. He knew that his friends understood him better as an artist than as a human being. Though they could not measure him up as a human being, they could surely understand him as an artist. He also believed their comments and words of appreciation more important than the scholarly critics' take on his works. Seen from the point of view of art history, this could be a fallacious approach of the artist. But in the case of Yousuf it came from his firm belief in his works, his total faith in his friends and also the complete trust in his viewers. He liked when people came and looked at his works for a long time. He also loved when collectors competed with each other for possessing many of his works. He was a happy man and a happy artist.

There are many ways in which history plays pranks with the creative human beings. Sometimes, history sees them working and going ahead with their passion, but it still waits as if it was giving enough time for them to complete the task. Meanwhile, it gives a lot of lift to those people do not do so many things to establish themselves. They are taken to the heights and dropped with the same speed. It is now time for history to give its due to Yousuf Ali. His works have been collected by various individuals and some prestigious institutions. A considerable collection is with the Aura Art Developers. These works are to be assessed with critical parameters of Yousuf's time as well as those of the present time. So far, Yousuf has survived the test of his own times. It is time for him to face the heat of the contemporary world. Aura Art Developers have done all the efforts to document and categorize the works done by the artist. They have even gone many places to trace the works and verify the provenance of a few works. Aura has collected verbal as well as written documents to substantiate the works done by Yousuf Ali. It is time for all the players in the art world to sit up and take a notice of Yousuf Ali's work and bring them back to the art market for further evaluation and appreciation.

Johny ML
Art Critic